


Salt Water in My Wounds

by ardett



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Drowning, M/M, Selkie AU, loose mentions of depression and suicide, mostly fluffy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-22
Updated: 2015-08-22
Packaged: 2018-04-16 15:42:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4630872
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ardett/pseuds/ardett
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>They say that if you shed seven tears into the sea, you will draw the attention of a selkie.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Salt Water in My Wounds

Another tear slips out, followed by a gasp and the faintest of shudders as a sob wracks through Tooru. After all this time, he wonders why he tries at all if he’s only going to met with pain and failure. 

His toes curl in the sand as his tiny noises echo off the cliffs that surround the isolated beach he’s wandered to. He can’t go home, not until his eyes lose their glassy look, their red film, not until he can breath with full breaths and the shaky fingers stop.

He’s prepared for the long wait.

Before he can find his peace with the surf though, sand shifting beneath feet rouses him. His head lifts from his arms, eyes widening as a boy rounds the corner. And he is stunning.

Tooru can’t identify what it is but something ( _ everything _ ) draws him to the other boy. When their eyes meet, it’s like his heartstrings are pulled taut. The boy cocks his head, black hair catching the light as dark eyes gleam

“What are you doing here?” The boy asks, steps quiet as he walks up to Tooru. The boy brushes a finger under Tooru’s eye and suddenly he remembers the tears still glistening on his face He can’t bring himself to reply, not while the other’s hand is still hot on his cheek.

Black eyes blink at him questioningly and Tooru barely manages to start stuttering before the other boy kisses him. All the air leaves him at once as he loses himself in the contact. It’s intoxicating, mesmerizing, and his mind reels.

The boy pulls back, only to lean forward and whisper in his ear, “Come into the water with me.”

His hand is tugged insistently and he follows, the ocean rising up to his ankles, his calves, his thighs, his waist. It’s frigid enough to turn his trembling to shivering and suddenly the boy’s grip on his hand seems too tight.

He hesitates and the boy turns to look at him, all night beauty and lust. The grip tightens and he winces at the ache, opening his mouth to protest.

Then Tooru is pulled under.

Water floods his mouth as air bubbles swarm his vision. He thrashes for the surface but there’s still a vise on his wrist and now there’s a weight forcing him deeper into the water from above. He tries to push back but his hand slips on slick fur instead of skin or clothes. For a second, he glimpses watery sunlight before it’s obscured by a giant black shape. The whiskered face of a seal stares down at Tooru but it’s the same dark, beautiful eyes as before. His lungs seize for air on reflex and as water burns into his lungs, he blacks out.

-

Tooru comes to while he’s retching water out of his system. His body jerks violently as his chest spasms out the last few mouthfuls and the ocean salt stings on his lips. He’s gasping for air when he sees him.

Tooru’s hands slip in the sand as he scrambles away from the impassive boy before him. He keeps his eyes locked on the black haired boy, partly in caution and partly because he can feel the pull of the other’s dark beauty even now.

When he speaks, his voice sounds thin, like it’s been stripped away by the water. “You’re a selkie.”

“Obviously.” The selkie scoffs.

His voice rises incredulously. “And you tried to drown me!” This time the boy just glares at him. “Why did you save me?” Tooru asks.

“I couldn't have saved you if I was the one who put you in danger.”

“Yeah, whatever, why’d you do it, selkie-chan?”

“Don’t call me that. My name is Iwaizumi.”

“Alright Iwa-chan, tell me; why were you going to drown me?”

The selkie’s dark eyes search his face for a long moment. “I thought you were going to kill me,” Iwaizumi says levely.

Tooru startles and his words come out loudly. “Why?”

“Because I’ve seen it happen.” Iwaizumi’s hands clench in the sand. “Selkies can tell when tears are being shed into the ocean. Hunters lure us out and steal our skin to enslave us,” The boy opens his palm and the grains scatter in the breeze. “Or kill us.” Tooru hears him inhale slowly. “But then I saw your eyes when I was holding you under. I’ve seen that kind of terror enough to know it’s not the kind you fake.”

“Is it my turn now, Iwa-chan?” Tooru says as the selkie looks at him expectantly. “Well my name is Oikawa and I haven’t had alcohol in-” A whack to the back of his head cuts him off. “Ow, mean Iwa-chan!”

“Be serious, idiot!”

“What do you want me to say, Iwa? That I’m weak and pathetic for coming here and crying? That I can barely walk anymore because my knee has been hurt so bad that this time they don’t think I’ll recover? Is that what I should say?”

“What I want you to say is the truth.”

“Then I guess I should say that I’m still thinking about you drowning me because I kind of wish you had finished the job. Sometimes I feel like I’m just here, just useless, worthless me.”

“You’re free. You’re alive. That’s something.”

Guilt twists in Tooru at that. “I’m sorry. I’m sure you don’t want to hear the moping of a teenage boy.”

“No, I think I understand.” Iwaizumi’s whispers.

This time, the kiss is soft and Tooru can taste the salt water of the ocean. He wonders if Iwaizumi can taste the salt of his tears.

He stands as he watches the boy leave, watching him dive into the surf and disappear. He’s turning to leave when he hears a splash. A flicker of a seal tail catches in his peripheral vision as water douses his legs. For a second, there’s only the silence of Tooru’s confused stare. Then, there’s a burning pain in his knee, like salt poured into an open cut. His breath stutters in his chest as the discomfort passes through him like a wave and then, with the same abruptness it started with, it ends.

Gingerly, he pokes his knee with no reaction. He gets a few more steps before it clicks. His knee doesn’t hurt.

Tooru searches the ocean’s surface but there’s no sign of the selkie. Tooru waves anyway, a tiny gesture swallowed by the vastness of the ocean.

(And underwater, a seal watches him leave with dark eyes and then swims away.)

**Author's Note:**

> I spend three quarters of this spelling Iwaizumi's name Iwazumi and then had to go back and correct all of it.
> 
> Credit to Skittidyne's [BBAC](http://archiveofourown.org/works/3766450/chapters/8366794) for inspiring a selkie Iwaizumi even though Iwaizumi wasn't really a selkie.


End file.
